Comics review: RUNNERS #1

RUNNERS #1 {Remastered} from Serve Man Press: Created, written and drawn by Sean Wang, RUNNERS is a six issue series which will be collected in TPB this coming June. This issue (part of the Free Comics Day promotion) is a redrawn & relettered version of the original first issue. Apparently, the issue as originally presented will be included in the up-coming TPB.

The series deals with the voyagers and adventures of the merchant space ship, Khoruysa Brimia. The crew is a mixed group of aliens from different planets and with different backgrounds, but they have formed a friendship which serves them well. You get the usual banter, although you don’t get a lot of heavy back-story, at least not in this issue. Other than an inside cover blurb and a ‘cast of character’ list a reader goes into the story with very little information. Frankly, I’m glad that Wang didn’t spend half the issue telling us the backgrounds of each character in detail. Enough is revealed in some comments and exchanges to show that there is a history between the crew and possibly the space pirates they encounter later.

While on a routine mission to rendezvous with another vessel the crew picks up a distress message from that ship. They soon discover that the other ship had been attacked and bordered by pirates. They also find that the pirates may have left behind the cargo for which they came. Namely an unconscious female discovered covered in some kind of liquid. The first issue ends at that point, but the book includes several pages of previews from the next four issues, which was enough to interest this reader.

Creator Wang’s art is cartoony, but also detailed enough and able to convey the emotions of the various characters even in silent panels. I think that his style and humor would appeal to those STAR WARS fans and others who enjoy a bit of SF fun. Not complete satire as in FUTURAMA, but with the feel of some segments of the original SW film, especially those scenes which took place on the Millennium Falcon. Wang gives each of his characters a personality which comes through even in this action filled first issue. The reader will want to learn more about each and the preview pages promise some interesting things involving the past of several of the crew.

Personally, I think there is a lot of potential here and certainly RUNNERS would make a great animated series or film in the right hands. Recommended for teens & adults.